Drag on Pointe: Dancer, Television Sensation, and Drag Superstar Brooke Lynn Hytes Is Queering Ballet
2021; University of Toronto Press; Volume: 185; Linguagem: Inglês
10.3138/ctr.185.007
ISSN1920-941X
Autores Tópico(s)Theatre and Performance Studies
ResumoBefore her star-making turn on RuPaul’s Drag Race, Canadian drag artist Brooke Lynn Hytes an was accomplished ballet dancer. The performer, born Brock Hayhoe, trained at Canada’s National Ballet School and danced professionally with both the Cape Town City Ballet and the esteemed drag dance troupe Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo. This article explores how Hytes has transported ballet’s deep repertoire of feminine signifiers onto drag stages, including Drag Race and the drag pageant Miss Continental. In doing so, Hytes has furthered the hallmark of Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo—queering ballet. In particular, Hytes has queered the practice of pointe work, a technique traditionally reserved for woman ballet dancers that functions as one of ballet’s most potent feminine signifiers. By incorporating pointe work into her drag dance, Hytes has revealed the practice to be a fiction of femininity, not unlike the drag queen’s make-up and wig. This article additionally charts Hytes’s pre- Drag Race career, her success since appearing on the show, and her contribution to drag culture in Canada. In a Q&A with Canadian Theatre Review accompanying the piece, Hytes speaks about fusing drag and ballet, her early experiences in the Toronto drag scene, and her hopes for the forthcoming Canadian edition of Drag Race, Canada’s Drag Race.
Referência(s)